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45
The Rover 400 Series, and later the Rover 45, are a series of compact cars, produced under the British marque Rover from 1990 to 2005. The car was mutually developed during Rover's collaboration with Honda; both generations of the car were Honda based, using first the Honda Concerto and later the Honda Domani/Civic. Honda petrol engines were used in some Rover models, conversely the then market competitive Rover L-series diesel engine was used from the mid 1990s in Hondas, before they designed their own diesel engine. In the autumn of 1999, the 400 Series was facelifted (under the codename Oyster) and renamed Rover 45. From the summer of 2001, a re-engineered hot hatch version of the Rover 45 was sold as the MG ZS. The 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8-litre petrol and 2.0-litre diesel engines were carried over from the 400 Series, but the 2.0 four-cylinder petrol unit was replaced by a 2.0-litre V6 from the larger Rover 75 – although this power unit was only available on saloon versions. The 45 came equipped with the better seating of the 75 and whilst the 400 models handled very well, the suspension was tuned to give much better controlled ride characteristics with quicker steering. The 45 was available with Continuously Variable Transmission(CVT) supplied by the German manufacturer ZF Sachs AG which had previously been used in the MGF. This particular design of CVT consists of an oil-cooled laminated steel belt (with external oil cooler) running on variable pulleys. MG Rover had many CVT failures returned to the supplier. Rover's own manual gearbox factory had been retained by BMW during the sale which created MG Rover. After buying its own gearbox designs from BMW for a time MG Rover eventually sourced an alternative supplier and later Rover 25/45 models up to 1.6-litre were fitted with Ford gearboxes. The revised model boasted improved equipment levels, comfortable interior and reduced prices, compared with the preceding 400 badged models. While the asking price was now in line with other small family cars, the Rover 45 began to lose market share. Being based on the 1992 Honda Domani, the 45 was by now an outdated car compared with contemporary offerings from other marques like the Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra, as well as foreign competitors like the Peugeot 307 and Fiat Stilo . A facelift in the spring of 2004 was MG Rover's last effort to boost sales of the Rover 45, including a new front and rear end, a re-designed dash, revised suspension settings, improved equipment and lower prices, some of these changes were necessitated by the end of Domani production in Japan, as Honda refused to continue the supply of certain parts. Production of the car stopped in April 2005 due to MG Rover's bankruptcy. Honda swiftly terminated the licencing agreement with MG Rover and removed the remaining tooling and assembly lines for the car from Longbridge prior to its sale to Nanjing Automotive. During the late 1990s, replacements for the Rover 25 and 45 models were developed by Rover Group under the codename R30. Intended for launch in 2003 as the Rover 35 and 55, these would have been based on an all-new platform. At launch these would have used K-series engines, but new Valvetronic engines were anticipated to be introduced by 2006. The R30 project was cancelled when BMW divested its ownership of Rover Group in 2000. It is possible that some of the development work may eventually have benefitted the BMW 1 Series. Following the termination of the R30 project, from 2001, MG Rover planned to replace the 45 with a model range based on the Rover 75 platform. Collectively referred to as the RD/X60 project (sometimes also written RDX60), the range was intended to comprise the following variants: * RD60: Rover hatchback * X60: MG hatchback * RD61: Rover saloon * RD62: Rover "tourer" estate A preview of how the RD62 "Tourer" might appear was given at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show in the form of the Rover TCV (Tourer Concept Vehicle) concept car. During the design process, MG Rover's design partner Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) went into administration. MG Rover lost access to most of the computer-aided design work for their new vehicle. Efforts were made to reclaim these from the administrators however the resulting uncertainty and delays made it impossible to progress with the project. The abortive 2004 SAIC deal was to have included bringing a replacement for the ageing 45 to market, and the RD/X60 was a likely candidate for this. Ultimately no such joint venture was entered into. After MG Rover's collapse SAIC bought some of the company's intellectual property and released a concept called the Roewe W2. Like the RD/X60 this was partly based on the Rover 75 platform. The W2 entered production in 2008 as the Roewe 550. A hatchback derivative of the 550 was announced in 2009 as the MG6. See Also: 200, 25, 400, 75, W5 (Roewe), 550 (Roewe), MG6 (MG)Category:RoverCategory:Year 2000+ Category:Hatchback Category:Sedan Category:Hatchbacks Category:Sedans